Jack Abramoff, In New Book, Decries Endemic
Corruption In Washington
www.nativenewsnetwork.com and www.huffingtonpost.com/
Condensed by Native Village

Proceeds from
Jack Abramoff's book have been
court ordered to pay back
American Indian tribes, His is
yet another sordid chapter to a
history of vast mistreatment of
American Indians.

Washington D.C.- Former superlobbyist and
ex-con Jack Abramoff describes himself as a creature of a
corrupted system.

"I wasn't the only villain in
Washington," he writes. Such conduct is "the
way the system works."

Along with most Americans,
the vast majority of American Indians
consider Abramoff a crook.
Abramoff was the high-priced former
Washington lobbyist convicted of ripping
off American Indian tribes of
$45,000,000. He
charged outrageous fees to tribes that
hired him as their lobbyist while his
emails referred to tribal officials as
monkeys.

After spending 3 1/2 years in a federal
prison, Abramoff has written his side of
the story in a new
book, "Capitol
Punishment: The Hard Truth About
Washington Corruption From America's
Most Notorious Lobbyist."

Abramoff describes how he
and his team "lavished
contributions, meals, event tickets,
travel, golf and jobs on innumerable
federal public officials with the
expectation or understanding that they
would take official actions on my behalf
or on behalf of my clients."

Abramoff says the Mississippi Band of
Choctaw Indians was the first tribe to
hire him. Their were concerned about a
proposed 30% Unrelated Business Income
Tax assessed on Indian tribal gaming
revenues.

According
to Abramoff, when Republicans took
control of the US House of
Representatives in 1994, several
Republican Congressmen vowed not to
raise taxes, Yet some had no problem
inserting the Unrelated Business Income
Tax into legislation. Many Congressmen
felt Indians were making too much money
off of
gaming. This included Speaker of the
House, Newt Gingrich.

After being hired
as the Choctaws' lobbyist, Abramoff and
team worked hard to strike the proposed
Unrelated Business Income Tax stricken
from legislation. Had Abramoff stopped
there, he would be a hero in Indian
Country.

But he did not. He went on to get nine
other tribes to sign on with his
lobbying efforts and the rest is
history.

Abramoff charged up to $150,000 per
month to alter legislation that pitted
tribes against
each other in blocking casino
development. He also lobbied to pressure
federal agencies to select tribes for
grants. In some cases, the final dollar
value of grant awards were far less than
what it cost to secure the funding.

"As a lobbyist, I thought it only
natural and right that my clients should
reward those members who saved them such
substantial sums with generous
contributions," he writes. "This quid
pro quo became one of hallmarks of our
lobbying efforts."

Abramoff points out that he was "not
alone in this method" and that "it
continues today, unabated by reform
campaigns or public ire at the
Congress."

The Tribes
that Jack Abramoff Scammed(Numbers
gathered from various
Internet Reports)

In the book, Abramoff mocks the
ethics reforms adopted by Congress in
the wake of his downfall.

"Is corruption in Washington really
ended by insisting congressmen eat their
food with their fingers standing up,
rather than seated with forks and
spoons? Yet, this is the kind of reform
which Congress proposes, passes, and
then congratulates itself about," he
writes.

Abramoff
reserves his most scathing criticism for members of
Congress. Those who never complained when he
showered them with money
and gifts were those "hung
him out to dry".

Abramoff remained silent --
taking the Fifth -- when he testified before the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee in 2004. In his book,
Abramhoff hints at what he might have
said had he opened up.

"Most of these legislators had taken
thousands of dollars from my clients and
firms, and now they were sitting as
impartial judges against me. Washington
hypocrisy at its best," he writes.
"Members swim in a swamp of corruption,
and thrive in it, but they are able --
with a straight face no less -- to
accuse others at will and
sanctimoniously punish what they see as
malfeasance."

To end the
revolving door, Abramhoff says that
government lobbyists and those who receive federal
contracts or benefit from public funds
should be prohibited from
giving gifts and campaign to all to public officials.

"The lure
of post-public service lobbying
employment needs to be eliminated," he
writes. So: "If you chose to serve in
Congress or on a congressional staff,
you should be barred for life from
working for any company, organization,
or association which lobbies the federal
government. "

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